Sportiest Canberra suburbs
O'Connor tops the ranking. Parkland means public parks, gardens and reserves mapped in OpenStreetMap, measured as area rather than as a count of parks. It is not a measure of tree cover, so a suburb of large private gardens can be leafy without appearing here. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 88 eligible Canberra suburbs.
This ranking counts the public sport and recreation facilities within 3 km of each Canberra suburb centre -- the aquatic and leisure centres, golf courses and stadiums a resident actually travels to.
Facilities come from OpenStreetMap and only NAMED ones are counted, which is what separates a public pool from the 40,681 private backyard pools mapped across Australia. TENNIS COURTS AND OVALS ARE DELIBERATELY EXCLUDED. Only 7.2% of them carry a name in OpenStreetMap against 83.6% of leisure centres, so counting courts would rank which councils label their courts rather than which suburbs have somewhere to play -- measured, the top fifteen by named court count and by true court count share one suburb in Melbourne and none in Adelaide. The number of DIFFERENT facility types nearby is shown on every row but does not change the order, because a tie-break that can take only five values would quietly become the ranking. COMMERCIAL GYMS ARE NOT COUNTED. A gym chain opens where the foot traffic is, so counting them ranks office and apartment density rather than sport: measured, the top suburb's 106 facilities were 71 gyms. They still appear on suburb and property pages, where a gym 400 m away is worth knowing. Counting anything within a radius still favours dense inner suburbs, which is a fact about where facilities are rather than a claim that outer suburbs are poorly served. This counts what is mapped and named nearby, not every facility that exists, and it says nothing about whether any of them is any good.
Sportiest Canberra suburbs
Ranked by the number of public sport and recreation facilities a resident travels to -- aquatic and leisure centres, golf courses and stadiums -- within 3 km of the suburb centre, from OpenStreetMap. Commercial gyms are NOT counted: they open where the foot traffic is, so counting them ranks office and apartment density. Counting facilities within a radius favours dense inner suburbs either way, which is a fact about where facilities are, not a claim that anywhere else is poorly served. Tennis courts and ovals are deliberately NOT counted: only 7.2% of them carry a name in OpenStreetMap, so counting them would rank which councils label their courts rather than which suburbs have facilities.
O'Connor
ACT 2602 · 5,917 residents18 facilities within 3 km · 3 kinds
Lyneham
ACT 2602 · 5,703 residents16 facilities within 3 km · 3 kinds
Kaleen
ACT 2617 · 7,672 residents14 facilities within 3 km · 3 kinds
Hughes
ACT 2605 · 3,210 residents13 facilities within 3 km · 3 kinds
Bruce
ACT 2617 · 7,520 residents13 facilities within 3 km · 2 kinds
Deakin
ACT 2600 · 3,124 residents12 facilities within 3 km · 3 kinds
Aranda
ACT 2614 · 2,605 residents12 facilities within 3 km · 2 kinds
Lawson
ACT 2617 · 2,739 residents12 facilities within 3 km · 2 kinds
Turner
ACT 2612 · 4,470 residents12 facilities within 3 km · 2 kinds
Ainslie
ACT 2602 · 5,376 residents12 facilities within 3 km
Curtin
ACT 2605 · 5,569 residents10 facilities within 3 km · 3 kinds
Griffith
ACT 2603 · 5,328 residents10 facilities within 3 km · 3 kinds
Red Hill
ACT 2603 · 3,146 residents10 facilities within 3 km · 3 kinds
Braddon
ACT 2612 · 6,383 residents10 facilities within 3 km · 2 kinds
Phillip
ACT 2606 · 5,197 residents10 facilities within 3 km · 2 kinds
Ranked from 88 qualifying suburbs.
The number of public sport and recreation facilities within 3 km of the suburb centre — aquatic and leisure centres, gyms, golf courses and stadiums — percentile-ranked within Canberra's candidate pool. Facilities come from OpenStreetMap and only NAMED ones count, which is what separates a public pool from the 40,681 private backyard pools mapped nationally. TENNIS COURTS AND OVALS ARE EXCLUDED: only 7.2% carry a name against 83.6% of leisure centres, so counting them would rank which councils label their courts. The number of different facility types is shown on each row and breaks ties only — it takes just five values, so letting it score would make the tie-break the ranking. A suburb with no facility within the ring is left out rather than ranked last. This counts what is mapped and named, not every facility that exists, and says nothing about whether any is any good. See how we calculate for the full methodology.
Common questions about this ranking
What are the sportiest Canberra suburbs?
O'Connor tops the ranking. Parkland means public parks, gardens and reserves mapped in OpenStreetMap, measured as area rather than as a count of parks. It is not a measure of tree cover, so a suburb of large private gardens can be leafy without appearing here. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 88 eligible Canberra suburbs.
How is this ranking put together?
Each Canberra suburb is ranked by how many public sport and recreation facilities sit within 3 km of its centre -- aquatic and leisure centres, gyms, golf courses and stadiums. Facilities come from OpenStreetMap. Only suburbs with at least 2,000 residents are ranked, and a suburb with none nearby is left out rather than ranked last.
Why are tennis courts and ovals not counted?
Because counting them would measure map-keeping, not facilities. Only 7.2% of courts and ovals carry a name in OpenStreetMap, against 83.6% of leisure centres, and unnamed ones cannot be told apart from each other. Ranking on them produces a different list entirely -- the top fifteen by named court count and by true court count share one suburb in Melbourne and none in Adelaide.
Does a high ranking mean the facilities are good?
No. This counts facilities near a suburb; it says nothing about their condition, cost, opening hours or whether they take new members. It also counts what is mapped and named in OpenStreetMap, which is not a complete register of every facility in Australia.
Why a 3 km radius?
Because an aquatic centre is somewhere a family drives to, not somewhere they walk. The parks ranking uses a 1 km ring for the opposite reason. A facility three suburbs away still counts here, so neighbouring suburbs will often share much of the same list.
Same list in other cities
- Sportiest Sydney suburbs
- Sportiest Melbourne suburbs
- Sportiest Brisbane suburbs
- Sportiest Perth suburbs
- Sportiest Adelaide suburbs
- Sportiest Hobart suburbs
- Sportiest Darwin suburbs
- Sportiest Newcastle suburbs
- Sportiest Central Coast suburbs
- Sportiest Sunshine Coast suburbs
- Sportiest Gold Coast suburbs
- Sportiest Wollongong suburbs
- Sportiest Geelong suburbs
- Sportiest Townsville suburbs
- Sportiest Toowoomba suburbs
- Sportiest Busselton suburbs
- Sportiest Ballarat suburbs
- Sportiest Cairns suburbs
- Sportiest Albany suburbs
- Sportiest Ballina suburbs
- Sportiest Geraldton suburbs
- Sportiest Warragul suburbs
- Sportiest Bundaberg suburbs
- Sportiest Launceston suburbs
- Sportiest Bendigo suburbs
- Sportiest Rockhampton suburbs
- Sportiest Mackay suburbs
- Sportiest Albury – Wodonga suburbs
- Sportiest Camden Haven suburbs
- Sportiest Burnie suburbs
- Sportiest Wagga Wagga suburbs
- Sportiest Coffs Harbour suburbs
- Sportiest Alice Springs suburbs
- Sportiest Mount Isa suburbs
Related
Rankings last computed 28 September 2026. Recomputed after each ACARA schools data refresh.
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